johngg@shiraz:~/perl/Monks > perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my @data = qw{ E1180 D250 A1180 D130 E855 E975 A130 A250 B1105 B1225 B2480 C1180 C1600 D1180 }; say for map { substr $_, 5 } sort map { pack q{ANA*}, substr( $_, 0, 1 ), substr( $_, 1 ), $_ } @data;' A130 A250 A1180 B1105 B1225 B2480 C1180 C1600 D130 D250 D1180 E855 E975 E1180